Not sleeping enough can cause acne

My skin has been misbehaving a little over the past week and I see new pimples popping out in a few places. It’s not PMS and I haven’t changed anything apart from sleeping late so I believe the lack of sleep has been causing my skin grief.

Study on acne vulgaris linked to lack of sleep
In fact, through my online research, I found that in an epidemiological study of acne vulgaris conducted in Japan by the Japanese Journal of Dermatology, 58.6% of the 793 students ranging from the sixth grade of elementary school to nursing or medical school were polled and more than half of them stated that lack of sleep as one of the exacerbating factors.

Inflammatory cytokines promote acne production
Apparently, a lack of sleep can increase inflammatory cytokines. Cytokines has high in proteins that is a major cause of acne when the intake is too much. According to the book Acne and Its Therapy, cytokines interferes with the secretion of natural lipid from the sebaceous glands and makes the skin more proned to acne production.

Lack of sleep promotes stress and acneWhen I sleep late, I also noticed that my skin actually secretes more sebum, and this probably explains why it results in new acne. Again, from what I’ve read, a lack of sleep will promote stress and that causes an increase in the substance cortisol in the body. Cortisol in turn, causes the skin to secrete more sebum, which results in acne. And Dr. Gil Yosipovich, professor of dermatology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine suggested that stress-related inflammation maybe to blame for the breakouts. “Our research suggests that acne severity associated with stress may result from factors others than sebum quantity. It’s possible that inflammation may be involved.” (source)

Increase insulin resistance linked to acne-pronedAnother factor connecting sleep deprivation to acne is the increase insulin resistance (source), which can contribute to one being acne-proned according to this medical article on acne causes. This is because insulin resistance can increase glucose or sugar that is one of the major causes of acne.

Sleep deprivation is one of the major culprits for acne
There are of course many other factors contributing to acne. For me, besides hormonal factor, a lack of sleep and a wrong diet are major culprits. I wish I can sleep at 10pm or 11pm every night. Unfortunately, much as I like to live up to my Viva Challenge, I can’t do that all the time and inevitably, my skin suffers. I NEED MORE TIME PLEASE!

Comments

i know dr. gil yosipovich. im friends with his daughter and hes always giving us advice on how to have good skin. my dad used to work at wake forest and i used to go to their dermatology department for my acne. i also know the doctor from seoul university you mentioned in your other post. small world, huh?

hmmm was just wondering if there’s any relation as to sleeping late but waking up late since you are still getting the same number of hours of sleep. haha i always thought it was ok but my brother convinced me that the optimum time for cell regeneration is from 10-11pm onwards.

Your brother is right. The optimum time to sleep is between 10pm – 3pm. I wrote about this a few times and most recently, put up a challenge on it here:
http://www.vivawoman.net/2009/04/13/viva-challenge-go-to-bed-by-10-pm-nightly/.

Yes. I agree with Elaine I. I have heard about the optimum time for skin renewal. Some say its from 10 to 2am, some say its 11 to 2am, etc.

My mum also has the firm belief that sleeping late causes premature aging, including acne, wrinkles and dental problems, etc.

After I learned of the optimum time for skin renewal, I tried to abide by it for a few years already. Sleeping by 12am most of the time. When I am super duper busy, I will sleep early (sometimes as early as 8 or 9pm) and wake up at 4am to continue working.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I went to sign up for a credit card at a road show. The sales rep thought I was a student and gasp when she saw my tax return. Hahahaha…so sleeping early kinda worked for me.

You’ve got good discipline! I guess your genes is also good and that helps you looking young too. I used to sleep earlier and wake up earlier but I can no longer do that. I wake up about 6am or earlier so I try to sleep by 11+ if I can at the latest.

on weekends (usually between a saturday and sunday), when i’m well rested in the day and know i will be having a real good long night sleep, i go without skin care to let my skin have a break from all the products i put on my face. usually my skin takes pretty well to it, no matter how late i sleep. i’d be the first to admit that i sleep at midnight or later usually…

but when i know i’ll be sleeping very little and have to wake up early to work the next day, i slap on a good serum, moisturizer AND overnight mask. usually this is a quick fix too. i think it’s hard to adhere to good sleeping hours in city living, heh

i use the face shop raspberry roots sleeping mask. i’ve also used and like the laneige water sleeping pack, but the face shop is cheaper and is just a tad less moisturizing, which i figured doesn’t really matter since i’ve already have serum and moisturizer on my face. but i also don’t sleep in air-conditioning so less dehydrating!

No need for discipline. Its a habit. And now I’m so tired that I can’t wait to sleep. hehehe…

Oh yes, sleeping masks are quite cool too. I tried the skinfood, leneige and @nature ones. Not bad. Especially when I travel and am ALWAYS in the air con environment. But if I use in Sg, nothing significant to hoo haa about.

Not only can enough sleep rid you of acne, but it can also help you lose weight! Studies show getting enough sleep can help you on your weight loss quest, so make it an effort to get into bed early and get those quality zzz’s!

Yes, thats how I feel about sleeping mask/pack. If I stay long hours in air con environment, my skin tends to be dehydrated. Like 2 wks ago in HK, no amount of hydrating serum and mask sheets I use seems to be enough. But upon the purchase and use of the Laneige water sleeping pack, my skin looks better but not optimal.

When I come back to Sg, hopefully to nurse my skin back to normal, I still do the hydrating serum and sleeping pack, I think its too much. Little bumps appear.